Thursday, October 15, 2009

Help tree-planting : Opinion : The Buffalo News:Three years ago, folks in these parts suddenly became very aware of the trees that surrounded them, trees that we had taken for granted as they shaded our streets, cleaned our air and otherwise brought beauty to our neighborhoods and parks with relatively little effort on our part.We became aware because many of those trees had been suddenly felled or damaged by what came to be known as the October Surprise snowstorm. And not a few of those branches and limbs also took out a lot of our power lines … something else we take for granted most of the time.The power companies scrambled the troops and, while it seemed interminable at the time, soon put the electric lines back. That part of life went back to normal.But there was no arboreal armada … paid by your monthly utility bills … on standby to restore the status quo of the urban forests. An organization had to be created from scratch to make that effort.Thus arose Re-Tree WNY, a volunteer organization that set a goal of planting 30,000 trees in five years. Now, more than half way through that self-imposed time horizon, the organization and the individuals, groups and local governments that have supported it have planted 11,200."